植株高度对木本植物幼苗叶片虫食强度的影响.

Insect herbivory is an important factor affecting the growth and death of plant seedlings in forest. Most of the current researches mainly focus on the effects of leaf traits, such as various nutrients, physical and chemical defense characteristics. Plant height, as an important functional trait of seedlings in the forest, directly affects the light acquisition and nutrient accumulation of leaves. In addition, plant height often correlates with leaf mass fraction, specific leaf area and leaf nitrogen content. However, few studies pay attention to the effect of seedling height on insect herbivory. In this study, the effect of plant height on insect herbivory was tested by investigating 354 seedlings of 39 woody plant species in a subtropical forest in Ailao Mountain, Yunnan Province. The results showed that there was a significant positive correlation between seedling height and insect herbivory at the community level. At the species level, different species showed different patterns, indicating that the effect of plant height on insect herbivory was species specific. Combined with the effect of plant height on seedling survival and competition, the preference of herbivorous insects to higher plant seedlings may benefit the survival of lower seedlings, which can further promote the growth and survival of the whole seedling community in the forest. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]